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CT Scan Could Save Lung Cancer Victims

October 26, 2006

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Researchers say annual low-dose CT screening could detect lung cancer at its earliest stages in 85 percent of patients.

Results of a new study, reported in the October 26 New England Journal of Medicine, would dramatically decrease the number of deaths from lung cancer -- the number one cause of cancer deaths among both men and women in the U.S.

CT screening, when followed by prompt surgical removal, improves the 10-year survival rate to 92 percent, according to the study. Stage I lung cancer is the only stage at which cure by surgery is highly likely.

While survival rates have been climbing for other forms of cancer, the survival rates for lung cancer have remained dismal. Approximately 95 percent of the 173,000 people diagnosed each year die from the disease -- more than breast, prostate and colon cancer combined.

The high death rates are a consequence of lung cancer not being detected early enough for treatment to be curative.

The study was launched by a team of researchers at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center in 1993 and has expanded into an international collaboration of 38 institutions in seven countries, the International Early Lung Cancer Action Project (I-ELCAP). The I-ELCAP study is the largest, long-term study to determine the usefulness of annual screening by CT.

CT scanning, or computed tomography, is a medical imaging technology in which the patient’s entire body is scanned.

Among the 31,567 people in the study, CT screening detected 484 people who were diagnosed with lung cancer, 412 of whom were Stage I. Of the Stage I patients who chose not to be treated, all died within five years.

Overall, the estimated 10-year survival rate for the 484 participants with lung cancer was 80 percent.

The participants were 40 years of age and older and at risk for lung cancer because of a history of cigarette smoking, occupational exposure (to asbestos, beryllium, uranium or radon), or exposure to secondhand smoke.

"We believe this study provides compelling evidence that CT screening for lung cancer offers new hope for millions of people at risk for this disease and could dramatically reverse lung cancer death rates," said Dr. Claudia Henschke, the study's lead author and principal investigator who is chief of the chest imaging division at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell and professor of radiology and cardiothoracic surgery at Weill Cornell Medical College.

The charge for a low-dose CT screening varies, but ranges from $200 to $300. Treatment for Stage I lung cancer is less than half the cost of late-stage treatment. Estimates of the cost-effectiveness of CT screening for lung cancer are similar or better than those for mammography screening for breast cancer.

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